An Anglican Pope?

Discussion in 'The Commons' started by seagull, Nov 1, 2013.

  1. seagull

    seagull Active Member

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    I've just come back from a week in France. On Sunday I attended eucharist at a Church of England (Diocese of Gibraltar) service.

    It was well attended and we all met for coffee afterwards. I got talking to an American Episcopalian. She said that what I'd heard was indeed correct. The Episcopal Church is having problems. She mused whether the Anglican Communion should have "someone in charge, probably from England". Ah yes, I've heard it mooted before: an Anglican Pope.

    But I'm not sure. I think we're too tolerant, too broad church for that. OK, the Roman Catholics have a guy in charge who's infallible, but that's a problem if he's off message. And although our Archbishop Welby seems wise and respected, I get the feeling that he is out of step with many Anglicans outside Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. For example, he's in favour of women Bishops and, as a graduate of the University of Cambridge, it would seem extremely unlikely that he's a creationist. So if he were an Anglican Pope, various people in this forum would have even more problems.

    By and large I feel that the present rather uncoordinated structure of the Anglican Communion is as good as we'll get at the moment.
     
  2. Ogygopsis

    Ogygopsis Active Member

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    I think you are correct. Authority in the Anglican Communion rests in the local Houses of Bishops or however else local churches are governed. There is a lot of diversity, such that it is unlikely that someone from England, America or Africa could possibly attend to the divergence. For Canada, we've gone to the point of having an Indigenous Bishop because someone who knows about that life experience is required. I consider the unity to be within the liturgy, which binds us together; I've been to many places, and this is the commonality. It has been in other languages, has had music unfamiliar both of tune and genre, but it still provides the comfort and unity.
     
  3. Old Christendom

    Old Christendom Well-Known Member

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    The only possible unity is unity of faith.

    The many problems that assail the modern Church of England stem from the fact that she ceased being a confessional church long ago.
     
  4. highchurchman

    highchurchman Well-Known Member Anglican

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    There is no call in scripture for a pope, we are expected to seek help from antiquity especially Anglicans. Antiquity refers us back to scripture and the Church. The problem with Anglican's is that most want to be their own pope. I was taught as a young man that the bench bishops, world wide, guided by the Holy Spirit, ( Acts ) are the Magisterium.
     
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  5. Elizabethan Churchman

    Elizabethan Churchman Active Member

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    I think the Episcopalian that you were talking to is onto something as far as discipline goes. However, a "pope" will only compound problems rather than resolve them. The retention of the historic Christian faith is paramount, and the entire reason the Apostles gave us presbyters and bishops was to protect the deposit of faith contained in the Holy Scriptures. It is their duty to make sure false doctrine does not enter the church. However, that does not mean that giving bishops infallible authority, either in the person of a pope or as a collective, will resolve all disciplinary issues.

    Furthermore, having a pope would destroy the Anglican ethos. It would just become a rather arbitrary liturgical tradition. Anglicans would probably have to start calling themselves "Canterbury Catholics," but they would probably be more like "Canterbury Schismatics."
     
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  6. Richter Belmont

    Richter Belmont New Member

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    I agree. The idea of an Anglican "Pope" can sound appealing when one looks for ways to repair the challenges within the Anglican Communion. However, it would likely result in trading one set of problems for another. In my opinion, the system we have is not bad.
     
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